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IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release No: 165-98April 14, 1998

DoD SELECTS NEXT GENERATION INTERNET PROPOSALS

The Department of Defense today announced that it will invest $50 million over the next three years in more than 27 proposals selected for negotiation as part of the federal government's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will oversee the program.
The NGI is a multi-agency, federal research and development program that aims to advance networking technologies and new applications through deployment of national-scale testbeds that are vastly superior to today's internet.

"In the coming years, this investment may enable the best medical specialists to give advice to patients in rural hospitals, scientists to use remote supercomputers to predict tornadoes, and adults to get new skills through distant learning," said Vice President Al Gore about the NGI initiative.

Secretary of Defense William Cohen noted, "Internet technology was first demonstrated by the military in the 1970s and is the foundation of today's military and commercial network systems.
The military must stay ahead in information technologies to dominate in the future.
The Next Generation Internet program will enable revolutionary capabilities of importance to both the Department of Defense and the nation as a whole."

Under DARPA's portion of the inter-agency NGI program, performers will develop key technologies for ultra high-performance networks.
The research areas include: an architecture combining internet protocol and wavelength division multiplexing technologies to enable a streamlined approach to the national information infrastructure of the 21st century; ultra-fast optical crossconnect switches; agile network access modules; high-fidelity modeling and simulation techniques; and tools for automating network operations.
Many of the prototype technologies and advanced applications will be deployed on SuperNet, DARPA's new, wide-area experimental testbed.

Transmission technology has made great strides in the past decade with the advent of wavelength-division multiplexing, developed through DARPA-sponsored research.
A single strand of fiber can now transmit information at the rate of over 1,000 billion bits per second, an equivalent of more than 10 million telephone calls.
SuperNet will build on DARPAs earlier successes and develop the networking technologies needed to harness this new capacity.

What's more, innovations in networking software and engineering tools will allow the internet to grow much larger.
To enable revolutionary advances in internet capability, NGI-sponsored researchers will develop new techniques for taming the increasing complexity of internet operations.
Research in areas of network engineering, including network management, security and survivability, are being pursued as part of the DoD program.

Close to 100 leading research groups across the country competed for the DARPA sponsored NGI awards.
Today's selectees, whose awards will range from approximately $200,000 to $5 million, are listed below.
The actual amount to be awarded to each research group is subject to negotiation.
DARPA also plans additional awards in excess of $5 million; these awards will be announced at a later date.